Elder McKay White: Week 15 in Huaycan

How's things going for you guys? Nothing too exciting is happening in my area right now. We're struggling to get people to church and struggling to find people to teach too. It's mildly frustrating since we're working super hard and feel we're doing everything right. Just gotta keep working though I guess. The only mildly interesting thing that happened this week was when we had to have a room intervention because one of the elders literally uses a quarter of the roll every time he goes to the bathroom. In two weeks we've used 15 rolls. To put that in perspective, before 15 rolls lasted us more that an entire transfer (6 weeks). Toilet paper is expensive guys. Don't take it for granted. But yeah, we're basically just waiting for the miracles to happen in our area. Have a good week everyone!

-Elder White

Monday

Elder Gonzalez woke everyone up at 5:30 laughing and didn't stop for 10 minutes. Long story short, in his dream he tried to toss a giant pear to me. We were both in a big tree and I was lower. The pear slipped through my hands and hit the other Elder Yanez, who was on the ground, in the face. So he woke up laughing. After internet, we ate at a Chifa in Chaclacayo as a zone, con exepcion de Las Lomas. When we were done eating, Elder Droubay and I went off together. I impulsively bought an alpaca fur back pack. Then we went to the super market and bought a couple of snacks for the movie the zone was going to watch: Cars 3. That was kind of fun. The zone leaders got a birthday cake for Hermanas Evans and Houghtan, as well as Elder Vilca, who's one of the zone leaders. It was a short night of work. We weren't able to have any citas, but we did find the Venezuelans. The bad news is that they have to all work on Sundays now. Their manager said it's because of the Christmas season. They work in a ferrateria. That's doesn't even make any sense. That made me kinda mad. I almost punched a dog after that. Speaking of dogs, they chase motos all the time. It's kinda funny to watch. I honestly don't know why I don't see dead dogs at all.

Tuesday

The guys in the 3 week program in the CCM came to our zone to proselyte today. I took Elder Valdivieso and Elder Aguirre (who will serve in Lima East) with me.

We didn't have time to come all the way back to my area, so we contacted in Moron. It was kinda fun. I hope they got something out of it. Then we had a meeting with Vanesa about seminary in the ward. We contacted pretty much all day. The bottom of my right foot in raw. It's pretty close to being a blister. It hurts a bit to walk. But yolo I guess. The dogs here are actually crazy. I don't think they understand the concept of gender. All the dogs try making puppies with whomever. Not a whole lot really happened today. We had a noche de hogar with the Carlos' and Cristina came, so that was awesome. We had to wait a while for William to come so that we could actually go inside though. We did a brief lesson about prayer. It went well enough. This month has flown by. I swear my brothers just barely started school, but their 1st term is already over. The mission gives you a lot of time to reflect on yourself. While I've been here, I've remembered things that I hadn't thought of since they happened. Like my friends throwing a stink bomb by the stairs in 1st grade. Or other random days of playing soccer every day during lunch. I remember one day in 1st grade, I was in my group of friends practicing spelling. My two friends were talking while doing it, Ethan and Levi. Once of the words was "but". Levi said, "I dare you to put an extra 't' on the end." Ethan did it and we were all like wow. My my how the times have changed.

Wednesday

There's a homeless lady that wanders around here. They only thing she wears is a shredded potato sack. I tried to offer her some food, but she didn't accept it. We were talking to Maria after and she told us that she doesn't accept food or clothing from anyone. Only matches. Weird stuff. One thing the mission has taught me is how fast 4 men use toilet paper. Fact: you should almost never need more than 5-6 squares. Elder Caro used an inhuman amount though. We're talking like 1/4 the roll every time. No joke. I just checked the package and each roll is 160 sheets. I don't know if I could use that much if I tried. There was an emergency meeting in the La Molina today that all the leaders had to attend. I got to spend the morning with Elder Hyde again. We contacted a lot. On days like this, you get pretty hesitant to do anything after 3:30 because you never know when your comp will get back. Elder Gonzalez got back. The citas we had planned fell. We went to la capilla for a cita with Yania, but that didn't work out, again. Long story short, we had to do a mini intercambios again to make the night work out. I took Elder Lainez with me to go try and teach Mario, who wasn't home. I didn't like Elder Lainez a whole lot last transfer but I don't mind him now. He's a pretty solid missionary. We walked back down to the church for correlations after that. I forgot to mention this, but I got bit by a dog the other day. I had just finished a contact and was walking away. The lady's dog decided to start chasing and barking at me. I was just kinda like, "Yeah, whatever." and kept walking. But then it bit my leg! It didn't hurt too bad because it was pretty small, but still. I couldn't really do a whole lot because the owner was sitting their watching, so I just kept walking.

Thursday

We had a district meeting this morning. It was pretty boring. These things have been lasting too long recently too. It's eating into our time for appointments.

Us bored in a consejo de distrito.

We had a quick lunch and then we went to go and do a baptismal interview for Huaycan 1. That kinda took a while. After that we contacted a bit. We contacted a dude who has a dog the size of a grizzly bear. When we were walking by the same spot the other day, I took note (pun intended) of the size of its teeth. They're huge. Right after that, I watched it almost kill another dog. But the dog was nice to us. His name is Shadow. The dude was pretty cool too. We gave the reference to Lomas 1. Elder Vasquez and Elder Aguilar claim that their ward is racist against them and only likes white missionaries. They said the ward would always call them Elder Morris and the others. So whenever I call them, I always say, "?Como esta Elder Condie y los demas?"(How is Elder Condie and the others?) It's pretty funny. As missionaries, we planned a ward movie night. We had a pretty good turn out. Investigators, older investigators, recent converts, members. It was a lot of fun. Today was the 100th day in Huaycan. Actually, I guess it was yesterday technically.

Friday

We had a cita this morning with a contact named Maria Ester. Huaycan 1 came with us because I didn't want to look for a varon (male) to come with us. The cita was going well, but then Jimmy stumbled upon us while he was pretty drunk. I was going to let him sit next to me, but he was being a distraction so I took him away a bit and talked to him so the others could teach. He wouldn't stop staring at her. I would ask him a question, he'd look at me and give a short answer, then go right back to staring at her. He was like, "She's going to be my girlfriend." I told him he had to quit drinking first. He was like, "Ok, ok." I told him if he wanted to see her again he could see her at church on Sunday. He was like, "I'll be there. We're going to get married." It was so cringy. The worst part was that she heard him say that last part, but she took it lightly and teased him about it after. We did intercambios with Lomas 2 today. Elder Castro came here with me. He's a pretty cool guy. We basically just contacted all day. We did go to visit the Penas tonight though. The lesson went well and they gave me what I'm pretty sure was my first arroz con leche (rice pudding). I almost got bit by dogs like 3 or 4 times today. One bit my book, another got aggressive enough that I actually hit it in the face with my book, and the others had me waving my book like a mad man. They all left Elder Castro alone though. I'm not even kidding when I say that the dogs here are racist. I don't know how or why, but they are. They always bark or try to attack me, but not my companion.

Saturday

We did a service project this morning with Las Lomas. We're literally out here moving mountains. We took out a ton of dirt in between a house and the stairs to try and make that part flat. There were a ton of huge rocks too.

My pinky got smashed pretty good, so now it's all black. It's ok though because Maria made tequekos for lunch. We switched back from intercambios before lunch though. My body is a mess right now. My pinky hurts pretty bad still, my back aches, and I have like 4-5 canker sores in my mouth right now. I forgot my planner when we went out today, so we didn't quite know what we were doing. But we had a mini lesson with a contact that we made. I don't know if anything will come out of that though. Then we had Alejandra come with us to visit a reference. That lady has a lot of problems right now. After the lesson, you could see that Alejandra was a bit shaken up by it. It's a sad world I guess. Almost everyone is going through some serious crap in their lives. Then we went to go visit Cristopher. I was worried that he was going cold, and he probably was a little actually. It wasn't as bad as I thought though, so that's good. We stopped by Mario's just to see how he was doing. He loves to read. He's read all the folletos (brochures) and everything in the LDM up to like Nephi 5. But shoot, I don't know how much we can do for him if he has to work Sundays now. We don't know why we're not having success still, so we decided we need to start making sacrifices. We haven't fasted yet this transfer, so we're back to doing that on Saturdays. In addition to that, we're going to wake up a half hour early everyday so that we have more time to study.

Sunday

I think that there was some kind of Catholic holiday. I swear there's one like every month. But this one seemed bigger. There were a bunch of fireworks throughout the day and then a pretty respectable show at night to top them off. We tried going out to recoger (pick up) Maria Ester, but she wasn't home. No one was at church today. Again. Before my mission and in the CCM, everyone always told me how great Sundays were. But I dread them. Instead of contacts or investigators coming to church, the only thing that comes is the disappointment of my unfruitful labors. Then at night I have to hear about the success the other areas in our district are having when Elder Gonzalez makes his calls for indicators. I just don't understand. What more do I need to sacrifice? Things were going so well back home for me. Between my full ride scholarship and the money I had saved up, I could have made it through college debt free maybe, probably. But now I'm in Huaycan. Why won't God help me? I'm feeling frustrated to say the least. At least we went to eat lunch with the Camacho's. They had some pretty good food. Then we went looking for and actually found Mariela. It was cool that we found her, but I don't know how much that we'll be able to help them. She's pretty receptive, but her husband isn't. That could be a problem because they're not married and he also has a drinking problem. From there we ran back to the Camacho's to go with them to do a noche de hogar with Vanesa's sister. Her sister talks a lot, so it's kinda hard to teach her. Well, they thought I was Mexican and Elder Gonzalez was a gringo. He does look pretty gringo and I do have a pretty good tan right now. It's actually kind of a problem because my arms and head look pretty good but the rest of me is super pasty.

The garbage truck song. It sings: Vecino, Vecina, cuida tu salud. Poniendo la basura en el recolector. (Neighbor, Neighbor watch your health. Putting the trash in the dumpster.) It's catchy.